After Google announced that it would sever ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council over its views on climate change, the group has insisted that it does not deny climate change.
However, as National Journal noted, ALEC’s model legislation casts doubt on climate change and touts potential positive benefits that global warming may have.
The legislation notes that “human activity has and will continue to alter the atmosphere of the planet” and may lead to “changes in climate.”
The model legislation also states that “such activity may lead to deleterious, neutral, or possibly beneficial climatic changes” and calls for “research on the possible benefits of such changes.”
Some crops may benefit from a warmer climate and others have pointed out lower heating costs, but the model legislation downplays the negative impact climate change has already had around the world.
In a Wednesday letter to Google, ALEC said that the group takes climate change seriously.
“ALEC recognizes that climate change is an important issue,” state legislators and ALEC members wrote in the letter. “No ALEC model policy denies climate change.”
Yet the model legislation notes that “a great deal of scientific uncertainty surrounds the nature of these prospective changes, and the cost of regulation to inhibit such changes may lead to great economic dislocation.”
ALEC also opposes some of the Environmental Protection Agency’s air and water regulations.
